The NFL confirmed that seven players have been suspended for violating the league’s performance enhancing policy, up from only two at this stage last year.

Suspensions tend to pick up as the season wears on, so this could turn out to be a record season. Here were the total PED suspensions over the last three years:

2008: 14

2009: 8

2010: 7 (thru 7/8)

Brian Cushing of the Texans brought the PED issue to the forefront of the NFL discussion in May, and all of the violations since only support the notion that PEDs are a significant and possibly growing problem for the league.